


i know what you'll do (you'll love me at once, the way you did) once upon a dream

by bislayer



Series: that's the good part, i guess. you get to go find a new dream. [1]
Category: Ranma 1/2
Genre: Anyways, Canon-Typical Violence, F/F, F/M, am i joking or not?, hoping to get featured on ao3's tag of the day yall, i don't make the rules here i'm merely a vessel for these thoughts that hit me at three am, more tags to come and i may change the title (shrugging emoticon)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-19
Updated: 2019-10-19
Packaged: 2020-12-23 21:56:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,107
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21088418
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bislayer/pseuds/bislayer
Summary: Ranma Saotome is by no means emotionally competent. He puts up this façade of hating Akane, but the more time that passes, the more difficult it is for him to lie about these feelings. And he knows that it makes him a coward; he hates that it makes him one, but he'd rather just live out the fantasies in his head. But everyone must have a breaking point.





	1. prologue

"Ranma?" Akane muttered softly, her voice soft and gentle, a wonderful contrast to the normal anger that often coated her voice. Wow, forget about looks, she even _sounded_ beautiful.

Too tired to answer properly, he just hummed in response, opening his eyes a sliver to be able to look at her face; beautiful as ever, free from the strain of constant anger. He didn't want to be caught looking at her, but he couldn't stop the smile that tugged at his lips, something that could only be described as dreamy. 

"I know you're staring at me, dummy." There was no malice in the jab, rather a warm and pleasant tone that could only be described as affectionate. Seeing no sense in keeping up the ruse, he allowed his eyes to open fully, his lovesick gaze settling on her. There was no fooling her, his smart and astute girl. He grinned brightly at her, reveling in the affectionately rude nickname.

"It's just cause you're so fucking beautiful this early in the morning." He spoke, his voice still hoarse with sleep, causing an embarrassed yet equally lovesick look to appear on her face, though she chose to look away from him, fighting the smile that crept onto her face. "You're so fucking beautiful that I opened my eyes to look at my pretty, smart, and badass girl." 

He spoke with such admiration in his voice, that she felt drawn, _compelled_ to look at him, to see his blue-gray eyes staring at her-the same color of clouds on a foggy day, though for the first time in a while, they were calm and not stormy-his silly grin still on his face. She rolled her eyes, pretending to be unamused, though the enamored smile gave her away. She rested her head onto the crook of his shoulder, throwing her arm around his torso, cuddling into him, her hands instinctively going to play with the ends of his braid, while his hands instinctively began rubbing the muscles in her shoulder.

It seemed the perfect moment shattered too early, interrupted by the blaring alarm clock, Ranma's hold tightening on Akane as she moved to get up.

"Nooooo." Ranma whined, to which she giggled softly. 

"Ranma, if we don't get up now the kids will make us get up."

_Wait, kids? _

_Wait, not important._

"Let them then." He whined, pouting at her, to which she giggled a little.

"God, you're such a child." She laughed slightly, sitting up and starting to pull him up, to which he responded by making his body go limp. "Ranma!" She scolded the smile still on her face. She gently slapped his shoulder, and he continued to grin up at her, before moving to rest back on his elbows, beginning the long process of getting out of bed. 

"What, no good morning kiss?" He teased, pleased with the exasperated look of mock annoyance that flitted across her face.

"Oh, you scoundrel." She responded, moving to stand up, further away from him.

"Wait, no!" He whined; he didn't want her to move away from him. He sat up, quickly grabbing hold of her wrist, a look of surprise flitting across her face. His other hand gently cupped her face, rubbing his thumb gently across her cheek. He felt his mouth go dry at the prospect of kissing her, despite the fact that he was already in motion, his actions seeming habitual and new all at the same time. Butterflies danced in his stomach, and the world seemed to move in slow motion, the beeping of the alarm long drowned out. Her skin was so smooth and warm against the pads of his fingers, her face slowly getting closer to him. 

Through lidded eyes he glanced at her lips, all cohesive thinking flying out the window as he caught a whiff of her shampoo. He shakily inhaled her breath, her lips ghosting over his own, not even touching.

And then reality seeped in, shattering his dream.

"Ranma, get up!" Akane yelled at him, an empty water bucket in her hand, and suddenly Ranma felt the change in height, his legs no longer peeking out of the covers. There was no sweetness in her voice, only anger and frustration. "We're gonna be late!" She yelled, huffing across his room, before punching the top of his alarm clock, the contraption flattening under her touch, the beeping finally stopping.

"Honestly Ranma, what's the point of having an alarm clock if it doesn't fucking wake you up!" She screamed as she left the room, stomping. 

Ranma groaned, letting his head fall back to the pillow with a thud, and pulling the covers over his face, listening to her stomps descend the stairs.


	2. memories of nothings

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so heyo this is taking place maybe a couple of weeks after the ep "Akane Goes to the Hospital"

Ranma Saotome was not having a good day.

It was a relatively quiet day in Nermia; it seemed that it's wacky residents had enough respect for the upcoming holiday to not stir up trouble, and most residents seemed content with the quiet. There were no fights that turned every street into a warzone, there were no two feet old people jumping around and wreaking mayhem. The only thing that remained was the hooligan that walked on fences, but otherwise the day was perfectly quiet.

Judging from the glower on the face of Ranma Saotome, the fence-walking hooligan himself, one would not have guessed about the rather good day.

Ranma sank deeper in his chair, completely ignoring the teacher who was writing the lesson up on the board. He instead looked at the ceiling, counting and recounting all of the tiles, now counting all the tiles that had water stains. He couldn't be bothered with looking at the front of the room, no, all his attention had to be focused on _anything_ other than the blue haired girl that sat at the front of the class. 

He glanced at the clock, groaning internally at how he still had to be in classes for another two hours. He didn't often wish for the craziness that followed, but he was desperately hoping for someone, _anyone_ to come and either challenge him or claim him as their fiancee. The one time he needed them to be there, and of course they didn't follow through. He was so grotesquely bored that he wished one of the _Kunos_ would bother him, but no, the three of them had to conveniently be out of town at the same time. 

Actually... maybe that wasn't so bad. 

It didn't really matter, his eyes flitting back to the clock to see that less than three minutes had passed, and he couldn't help rolling his eyes. He glanced back at the board, more notes that he should be taking, written on the board. It didn't really matter though, he could always get the notes he needed from Akane or Ukyo. If he was truly desperate he could copy off of Hiroshi and Daisuke.

Akane.

It was annoying really. 

Just one thought of her name, and suddenly the unwanted memories of his dream came pouring over him. His scowl deepened as he shook his head violently, as if to rid the images from his brain. It of course didn't serve it's intended purpose, but rather put him on the radar of his teacher. His lack of notes-his lack of his notebook on his desk, really-was all that was needed for his teacher to send him into the hall, a bucket of water in his hand.

Ranma had always considered it an unusual punishment, but in the year or so since his curse, it seemed outright cruel. Of course, the holding the bucket for the remainder of the hour didn't bother him in the slightest, it was rather knowing that should something go wrong-and something _always_ does-he would be in a very easy situation to become a girl yet again.

"Argh!" He grunted aloud, his mood souring even more as his worries about transforming reminded him of the unpleasant way he had woken up in the morning. 

Oh, she was so uncute!

His dream be damned, Ranma with resounding resolute began wracking his brain for every single moment of uncuteness that had befallen his fiancee, Akane Tendo. 

Unfortunately for him, he could only think of one.

His mind suddenly swirled with the memories of the play, how Akane's face had turned angry with pain at how he had no idea that he had had lines. 

It pained him, but even in this memory she hadn't been uncute, an uncomfortable feeling of guilt settling upon his chest, as her look of pain flashed before him. He had never really realized before, but he had seen that look a lot, especially when he had first become a part of her life. He had always assumed that the anger on her face always had an edge of pain, but now that he knew her, _truly knew her_ he could see the pain.

He shook his head, as if to shake these thoughts from his head. 

Something was wrong with him. Something had to be. 

He knew he was pretty stubborn, and he knew that he could often force perspectives into his mind, no matter how he felt in the moment. But for some reason, the idea that Akane was uncute-an idea that he could often make himself believe because of her perpetually angry face-would not stick.

Instead he felt uncomfortable feelings of guilt; something he was _not_ used to, and something that he decided he didn't care much for. His brain was forced into an unwanted memory, his last big screw-up; when Gosunkugi was taking pervy pictures and Akane got hurt. 

Wait what? 

Ranma had never truly blamed himself for that before, no that was something that he knew he had been in the right in. It had had little to do with Akane's honor being on the line, but rather from his own experiences when Nabiki profited off of pictures she had sneaked of his girl form. Perhaps it had a little to do with Akane's honor, because he knew that if it were a different girl his reaction would've been the same, though his actions would've been more calm and collected, not as violent and thoughtless as his had been. 

But now, here he was, feeling guilt for the situation?

His mind wandered a little more, the memories of his stupid, stupid daydreams coming back into his mind, and before he could banish the thought, he felt the warm feeling wash over him that he had felt in the almost-kiss in his dream and the kisses in his daydreams. He yelped slightly at the unwanted thoughts, his arm jerking slightly, the water splashing over him.

No longer could he hold it in, he bellowed in anger, although with his changed form it sounded more like an exasperated sigh mixed with an angry groan. 

"Ouch!" He yelled out, turning quickly towards the window of the classroom, seeing that the two students closest were closing the window. Akane had thrown his bag at him without looking away from her notes, her hand still up from the motion. It was moments like these that reminded Ranma of what an accomplished martial artist Akane was; she had the coordination, strength, technique, and awareness to be able to throw the bag at him.

His moment of awe, did nothing from putting him in an even worse mood. He glared at Akane, and flipped her off, and without even look back at him, she flipped him off. 

His anger festered for a moment, before the bell rang, and Akane came out to meet him with an annoyed look on her face.

"There's a kettle in the bag, dummy!" She snarled, pulling out the kettle. 

_Dummy._ The word pulled him back into his dream, remembering the way she had said it with such love, not the malice her voice was edged with now. For some reason, it made his heart hurt.

He must've been staring off into space, because when he focused back on her face, she was glaring at him, hands on her hips."Did you hear a word I said, Ranma?" She asked, forcefully. It seemed that she wasn't having too much of a good day either.

He knew better than to lie, but he also knew better than to tell the truth. "...No?"

She rolled her eyes at him, but there wasn't much anger left in her eyes, rather exhaustion. "I said, you go change back, and I'll cover for you." And with that she turned away from him, heading towards their next class.

And for some strange reason as she walked away, he an uncomfortable sensation bubbling in his stomach.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapters will be longer it's just like one in the morning


End file.
